Long Beach budget plan shifts funds to avoid some reductions in city services

LONG BEACH - Responding to community pressure, City Manager Pat West presented a plan Tuesday that shifts oil revenue, sidewalk funding and other money to prevent some reductions in parks and libraries slated for next year.

The City Council voted 7-0 to refer the proposal, which identifies $2.73 million in new general fund revenue to offset $2.64 million in cuts, to the Budget Oversight Committee.

Among other changes, some staff positions at proposed self-service library branches would be restored, hours wouldn't be reduced at Silverado and Will J. Reid pools, and programming would be maintained for adaptive recreation, the Long Beach Senior Center and the El Dorado Nature Center.

West acknowledged that the plan carries risk since it increases the price floor for city oil proceeds used in day-to-day expenses from $65 per barrel to $70, moving $1.3million from reserves.

However, West said, the time may have come to protect quality-of-life services after a decade of deficits and accompanying austerity measures.

"They are truly in year 10 of significant cuts," said West.

Councilman James Johnson, an ardent backer of infrastructure work, criticized the proposal because it shifts $1 million from the sidewalk repair fund, which would leave $2 million citywide.

He compared the suggestion to attempts by Los Angeles to foist the burden of patching sidewalks to homeowners, calling the proposed structural reduction the "wrong direction."

Vice Mayor Robert Garcia initially called for immediately incorporating West's blueprint into the budget the council will consider next month.

"I think these are absolutely the right restorations to make," Garcia said.

He disagreed that sidewalk repair would suffer if the plan is adopted, saying that surplus revenue sources can be used to replenish the funds.

The remaining $430,000 pinpointed by West would come from cell tower revenue transferred from the Long Beach Water Department, a 5 percent reduction in the city's electricity contract, a library grant and charges to enterprise funds for a new Cost Recovery Bureau in the Department of Financial Management.

As he has repeatedly, Mayor Bob Foster cautioned council members against straying from a more disciplined approach to budget-making and committing too much of the city's reserves to ongoing costs.